Golf club



Oct. 29, 1940. w. WETTLAUFER GOLF CLUB Filed Jan. 25, 1959 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 29, 1940 UNITED 'STATES PATENT OFFICE GOLF CLUB William L. Wettlaufer, Barman. Y.

Application January 25, 1939, Serial No. 252,789

3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in golf clubs.

The invention relates more particularly to a shaft structure which may be adjusted to suit 5 the stance of the player with the object of obtaining the proper positioning of the club head relative to the ground. The adjustment is devised so that the shaft is nutated to a primary high or low angular position to suit a tall or short player, for example; and to a group of secondary and adjacent angular positions to provide for the correction of a slice or hook in either of the two major positions. The structure which permits this adjustment consists of a novel adapter which is removably fitted to a socket in the head to provide an extremely rigid connection which, however, is simple to adjust under the guidance of associated calibrations on the club head and adapter to the various corrective positions.

These and other features of the invention are more completely set forth in the accompanying specification and drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front or face view of a golf club supplied with the adapter structure of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a top view of the club, showing the various adjusted positions of the shaft relative to a fixed club head;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a golf club as viewed by the player at address, and showing diagrammatically the range of adjustment of the shaft and the corresponding effect on the club J head.

The club includes a head 8 which is preferably, although not necessarily, of a light weight metal, such as aluminum or magnesium, whereon is formed a cylindrical boss I containing a socket ll of frusto-pyramidal formation. A hole i2 in the base l3 of the club enters the socket axially.

The shaft E5 of the club, together with the adapter IE to which it is secured, forms an individual unit which is removably and adjustably assembled with the head 8. The adapter is formed with a stem 20 and a shank ii, the shank being frusto-pyramidal and adapted to be wedged in place within the formation ll of the head 8. The shank contains an axial tapped hole l8 for receiving a screw 2| which enters the head hole I2 to retain the parts in rigid assembly.

It will be observed in Fig. 1 that the adapter stem 20, and the contained bore 20A in which the shaft I5 is received, are disposed at a small angle to the adapter shank H. The axis of the bore 20A is indicated by the line 0A, the letter 0 indicating the point of intersection of the two angularly related axes. The shank i'i terminates in a circular shoulder 24, and it is preferred that the intersection point 0 be slightly above such 5 shoulder. This provides sufficient space at the lower end of the stem 20 for a formation in which the shoulder 24 is disposed normal to the axis of the shank l1, and thus it is always concentric with the underlying portion of the head boss [0. 10 The pyramidal socket and stem are shown as having eight sides, but it will be understood that such number may be varied.

This arrangement provides eight adjusted positions of the shaft assembly relative to the head 15 8. In Fig. 3, it will be assumed that the head is rigidly fixed and only the shaft is permitted to be nutated about the point 0. In such case, the end 22 of the shaft will be adjustable to eight positions, all falling within a circle 23 whose cen- 20 ter is the previously described point 0 in the adapter i6.

In actual use of the club, the end 22 of the shaft is usually positioned by the player in a definite relation to the ball B, and as indicated 25 in Fig. 4 by the line- 25. Thus, assuming the shaft to be adjusted to position S, as in Fig. '3, it will be observed that when brought to the line 25, as in Fig. 4, it causes a rotation of the club head on its base Hi to an extreme angular or open position of the club face 26, as indicated by the letter S. It follows, therefore, that the opposed adjustment H will position the face to the extreme closed position H, while the upper and lower angular positions U and D will be reflected in the single normal or central position UD. Similarly, the positions UH, DH and US, DS give the intermediate positions U'D'H' and U'DS', respectively, of the club face.

The primary adjustments fit the club to the 0 average tall or short players whose hand positions demand greater or lesser angles of the shaft relative to the ground. A tall player, for example, will require a setting in the U or up group, and, in such case, the club head will assume the proper position on the ground at address. If the tall player shows a tendency to slice or hook, then a secondary adjustment is made by shifting from the normal U position to the adjacent US or UH positions, which produces the inter- 5o mediate closed and open positions of the club face to counteract such faults. In practice, it will be found that the positions S and H, used for alleviating an extreme slice or hook, should not be permanently used, as it indicates a fundamental error in the stroke of the player which should be corrected otherwise.

The various described angular positions are easily obtained by loosening the screw 2!, par tially removing the adapter shank l1, and rotating the shaft to the desired adjustment under guidance of indexing calibrations SI engraved on the stem of the adapter. A small screwdriver is the only tool necessary for this operation, and it may be carried in the golf bag when the player chooses to experiment with the effect of the adjustments on the flight of the ball.

I claim:

1. An adapter for connecting a golf club shaft to a club head having a socket portion, said adapter comprising a stem adapted to receive and hold the end of the shaft, said stem merging into and being contiguous with a shank, said shank being adapted to be inserted and secured in said socket for substantially the full length of the shank, whereby the zone of merger of the stem and shank is adjacent the outer end of the socket, said shank having an axis angularly disposed with respect to the axis of the stem, the

stem axis and shank axes intersecting each other substantially at the zone of merger of the shank and stem, said shank being rotatably positionable in said socket about the axis of the shank, whereby, upon adjustments of the shank in th socket, the grip end of the shaft isoaused to nutate about a center located at said zone of merger and the inclination between the club sole and shaft may be varied and the club face may be opened or cloud.

2. An adapter as set forth in the preceding claim, in which the shank is formed with a plurality of faces, and the socket is formed with corresponding faces, adapted to interengage each other in any adjusted position, eachof said ad- Justed positions providing for different variations in the relations between the club head and shaft.

3. An adapter as set forth in the first claim, wherein a plurality of calibrating indicia are formed on the adapter adjacent the a zone of merger, each of which corresponds to a different adjustment.

WILLIAM L. WETTLAUFER. 

